Rebecca Kaplan has some explaining to do

Any notion that Oakland mayoral hopeful Rebecca Kaplan represented an ethical step forward from some of her more illustrious City Council colleagues – or her mayoral rivals – just got tossed out the window.

Since 2010, contributions made to an independent expenditure committee fund established by Kaplan to support good government ballot measures were used to pay the salaries of campaign staff from the 2010 mayor’s race, finance political mailers and on at least one occasion, sponsor a political group’s annual fundraiser.

Two former political campaign staffers, Scott Hawkins and Jonathan Bair, were reached by phone and confirmed their comments in the newspaper article.

Separately, Andy Kelley, a two-term president of the East Bay Young Democrats, told me on Monday that when Kaplan sponsored the group’s annual 2012 fundraising gala, which honored U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, her $500 contribution was made with a check from “her measure BB authorization committee.”

Kaplan has not commented on the article, but former council aide and mayoral campaign manager Jason Overman told the newspaper that the official Measure BB fund would receive a significant transfer of funds when Kaplan’s committee is disbanded at the end of the month.

Two days before the Tribune article appeared, Overman sent an e-mail to the news media announcing his resignation from his city-paid post, but said he would continue his duties as her government spokesman. Overman did not respond to a phone call or e-mail message.

However, that’s not enough to allay concerns from some of Kaplan’s mayoral rivals that she used the independent expenditure committee to side-step city campaign financing laws which limit individual contributions to $700.

“If these allegations are true, I find it enormously disappointing,” said Joe Tuman, a San Francisco State University professor, and a candidate for mayor. “As candidates we all hate the fact that money is so important in these races. In the last (reporting) period, we raised $153,000 and I had to do thousands of asks. To end run all that, beyond it being illegal and unethical, it’s also unfair.”

It’s also a bit hypocritical if you look back at Kaplan’s 2010 mayoral run, when she and Jean Quan teamed up to defeat front-runner Don Perata, a former state senator regarded as one of the most powerful politicians in the state.

A month before the November 2010 election, Quan and Kaplan blasted Perata and challenged him to produce records, under penalty of perjury, showing there was no connection between the Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee, and his mayoral campaign.

“There’s a law on the books,” Kaplan said at the time. “It should be enforced. It’s apparently being violated. We should be remedying it now.”

Following that logic, Libby Schaaf or Tuman or one of the other 17 or so candidates should demand that Kaplan respond and prove there is no connection between her independent expenditure committee and her political campaigns.

Otherwise, her image as an above-the-fray, progressive politician who promises a new, updated city – Oakland 2.0 – is beginning to resemble self-serving Old School politics, patronage, nepotism and cronyism that have controlled Oakland politics for decades.